Scuppering the Ombudsman

12:01AM BST 13 Jul 2002

There are several reasons for thinking that the Prime Minister's high-handed decision to block a ruling by Sir Michael Buckley, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, was a blunder. As Sir Michael himself points out, it damaged an office that was designed to be independent of government. The Ombudsman is an officer of Parliament. That is why Andrew Robathan, the Tory MP for Blaby, turned to him when refused by every department but one information on how many times ministers had reported conflicts of interest to their permanent secretaries.

Were state secrets involved? Apparently not, for the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, which originally fielded the inquiry, declares they were happy to release the information. So much for this Government's avowed openness and so much for hopes of more freedom of information under Labour. Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary, declares that Mr Blair refused to co-operate on grounds that relations between ministers and their advisers would be undermined if they felt every conversation could be made public. But Mr Robathan and the Ombudsman were not prying into conversations. They were seeking information that should be in the public domain. What has been undermined - and by the Prime Minister - is public confidence in the workings of the Ombudsman. It throws a harsh light on the present-day workings of Number 10.